1950s

1950s

  • Marvin L. Marshall (’56, ’61) published a book, entitled “Discipline without Stress.”
  • Phillip McKnett Pote (’55) remains active as a scouting advisor for the Seattle Mariners, the team he has worked with for the past 20 years.
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1960s

  • Richard Alatorre (’65) is an informal advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and an advocate for companies seeking city business.
  • Charles Beatty (’65) was appointed as the director of Crescenta Valley Water Board.
  • Lawrence William Berrie (’66) was a winner of the 2007 New York Book Festival. His book “Strike at the Heart” was named Best Science Fiction Book and also received honors in the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival.
  • Louis L. Fried (’62, ’65) launched a new career as a fiction writer with the publication of his new anthology of adult short stories, “Other Countries/Other Worlds.”
  • Michael S. Harper (’61, ’63) was named the recipient of the 2008 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America. Harper, the author of more than 10 books of poems, has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
  • John P. Kovac (’67) is art department chair at El Monte High School.
  • John Oliver (’67), director of the social work department at Cal State University, Long Beach, has received a 2007 Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Award from the California chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
  • Michael Stover (’69) retired as an assistant city manager for Lakewood after 30 years of city service. Stover worked for the Temple City Unified School District and as a U.S. Congressman before becoming assistant city manager.
  • Nathanial Trives (‘68) was appointed to the Commission on Judicial Performance by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Trives, a former mayor of Santa Monica, currently chairs Cal State L.A.’s Pat Brown Institute.
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1970s

  • Mario de los Cobos (’71) retired as vice president of university development at California State University, Channel Islands. He moved to Arizona upon his retirement in 2007.
  • JoAnn Copperud (’78) is chief executive of Emeryville’s RGA Environmental Inc. and she expanded RGA operations into New Orleans three weeks after Hurricane Katrina.
  • John Michael Costanzo (’77, ’85) was named principal at Rio Norte Junior High. He was former assistant principal at West Ranch High School and Saugus High School.
  • Marilyn Diaz (’72), at the head the Sierra Madre Police Department, is the L.A. County’s first female police chief.
  • Paul J. Gomez (’71) has been reelected as the president of Chaffey College’s board for the fourth time. His position represents the entire Chaffey college district, which serves Chino, Chino Hills, Ontario, Fontana, Montclair, Mt. Baldy, Rancho Cucamonga and Upland.
  • Melvin Kenneth Lim (’74) is a manager of the Pasadena Health Department’s Environmental Health Division. He oversees more than 650 restaurants and 1,000 food facilities in the city.
  • Edward Lu (MS ‘71) was appointed to the board of directors of the network CN, Inc., a Chinese media and travel company headquartered in Hong Kong.
  • William T.C. Lu (‘72, ’78) is president of and CEO of Golden Coast Bank. Lu, who is a founding member of the Chinese Banking Association, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Business and Economics at the 34th annual Alumni Awards Gala.
  • Paul O’Brien (’74) retired as the executive director of the Santa Cruz Community Counseling center. He was the former director of Sunflower House and Si Se Puede.
  • Jon Petersen (’70) has been inducted into Clemson University’s prestigious engineering and science academy because of his contributions to the community, and to engineering and science. He is currently president of the University of Tennessee, leading the statewide system.
  • Steven Uranga (’77) was appointed to the Los Angles City Employees Retirement Board.
  • Pat West (MS ’79), was hired as Long Beach’s City Manager. West worked with the city of Paramount and was a community development director and executive director of the Redevelopment Agency in Long Beach before taking the new post.
  • Otis D. Wright II (’76) is an L.A. County Superior Court Judge, who will hear cases in the federal Central District of California. He was appointed to the Superior Court in November 2005 by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
  • Dr. Earl Glenn Yarbrough (MA ’74) named president of Savannah State University after serving as the former vice president for academic affairs and a professor of industrial technology at Virginia State University.
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1980s

  • Ronald J. Black (MS ’89) has been promoted to Chief Inspector of the Los Angeles Housing Department Code Enforcement Division. He most recently served the City of Los Angeles as Assistant Director of the Department of Building Safety Case Management.
  • Les S. Brodie (MS ’84) was named the chief financial officer for the Oregon Department of Transportation, after holding several administrative positions in Washington State.
  • Jovita Carranza (’86) was appointed as the deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
  • Elizabeth Link (’86), a clinical manager for Cottage Hospital Eye and Laser center, is a new board member at American Red Cross Santa Barbara County Chapter. On a voluntary basis she travels to Mexico twice a year with SEE International to perform eye surgeries.
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1990s

  • Star Bobatoon (’97) was hired as a human resources consultant for Employment Practices Solution in Washington, D.C.
  • Dan Engle (’91) designed masks for “The Mask” and models used to build Batmobiles the “Batman” movies. He also did “The Flying Dutchman” for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequels and provided the models for the “Mummy 3” movie and “Lemony Snicket’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
  • Linda Cecile Kelly (MS ’92) is Sonoma’s city manager.
  • Aydee Martinez (’99) started a business named Aydee Art, which includes ceramics, woodwork and images to be reproduced as prints, on mugs, magnets, greeting cards and T-shirts.
  • Enrique Murillo (’95) an associate professor at Cal State University San Bernardino, Murillo has been appointed to a 15-member California Student Aid Commission that administers $2.4 billion in financial aid grants and loans to the state’s college students.
  • Michael Napolitano (MS ’91) joined California-based Baja Fresh Mexican Grill as director of construction and design. He will be responsible for taking the new Baja Fresh and La Salsa locations through the overall design, development and entitlement process.
  • Adrian Hill Ravarour (’92, ’01) recently published two books: “Lightforms: Energy Flow Photography,” and “Epiphanies: Energy Flow Poetry.”
  • Brian Anthony Sassi (’94) was appointed president and chief executive of WellPoint’s consumer business unit. WellPoint Inc. is the largest health benefits company in terms of commercial members in the United States.
  • Priyankara Vittanachchi (’91) is a film director whose debut movie “Samy’s Story” will be release in Sri Lanka.
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2000s

  • Marisela Cervantes (’00) received the Winston Crouch Award for Innovation in Government from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Society for Public Administration. She was honored for her work as the executive director of the Southeast Cities Schools Coalition.
  • Noah Gift (MS ’03) recently published a book on software development, entitled “Python for Unix and Linux System Administration.”
  • Christine Witt Griley (’05) is a teacher at San Marcos Elementary School in North County San Diego.
  • Kathleen Holtz (’03) is the youngest licensed lawyer in the state, after joining the Century City firm of Troy Gould. Holtz, an EEPster student, graduated magna cum laude in Philosophy and entered UCLA School of Law at 15.
  • Carlos Illingworth (’04) has accepted a position with VONS as the manager of public affairs and government relations.
  • Lamar Martin (’06) started a new position with Farmers Insurances as a District Manager Training Assistant.
  • Brian A. Martinez (’07) is lead singer of the band Tuesday Night Squad.
  • Maija Rohde (’07) is the Cal State University Bakersfield Roadrunner cross country team coach.
  • Alvina Rosales (’08) a National Institute of Health scholar at Cal State L.A., will be attending Georgia State University’s Ph.D. program this year after conducting classnotesaward-winning research into the psychological aspects of HIV.
  • Alysia Shen (MA ’03) appointed principal of Quail Summit Elementary after previously working as the assistant principal at Newton Middle School in La Puente Unified School District.
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In Memoriam

  • Allen P. Bristow an emeritus professor of criminal justice, who began teaching after retiring from a career in law enforcement. Bristow received the Outstanding Professor Award in 1967-68 and was elected to membership in the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi during his tenure.
  • Roland L. Carpenter ('50) an emeritus professor of physics and astronomy, who taught at the University for 26 years. He was a highly respected teacher and scholar, and is credited as being the University's founding astronomer.
  • Carl B. Coleman (’66) served on the Fontana City Council From 1992-1996. Coleman was employed by the Fontana Unified School District for 31 years.
  • Armina Nassardeen (’81) didn’t go to college until she was 50 years old. Nassardeen earned a bachelor’s at Cal State L.A. and a master’s at USC when she was 60. She was a part time social worker for A Better Life Adoption Agency in Sacramento.
  • Ronald Prescott (’61, ’69) an education lobbyist who rose as high as deputy superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Prescott led the fight for new dollars to pay for integration programs.
  • Evelyn Lorraine Rothman (’54) women’s advocate and leader of the health movement in the 1970s. She founded the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Los Angeles.
  • Marianne Smith (’71) A retired Special Education teacher grades K-12 and a special needs instructional aid in countless classrooms from Northern to Southern California.
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